Names are a tricky business. They mean so much, and yet they mean little at all. My name is Stella. In Latin, it means “star.” My name means a lot to me, and I feel as if it is a central part of me, something essential to my core. However, I realize this isn’t entirely true. If I were named something else, Veronica perhaps, I would be the exact same person as I am with the name Stella. I think that names take on the meaning that you give them. Names are important only so far as we make them important. Going with the same example, if my name were Veronica, it would probably be just as special to me. Additionally, the names we give our groups and societies are only as important as we make them. As a member of the vast Harry Potter fan community, being a part of the house of Ravenclaw means a lot to me, and yet I still realize that my Hogwarts house is essentially trivial and bears no real significance to my life. I consider other names I bear, such as “Child of God” to be vastly more important. All the same, I still consider being a Ravenclaw a fairly important part of my identity.

As a society, I think we really enjoy online quizzes. I know I love them. My favorite kind are the ones that proport to tell me something about myself. As I am a huge fan of Harry Potter, figuring out my Hogwarts house through various quizzes has been something of great interest to me. I think I first started taking Sorting Hat quizzes when I was eight, because that was the year my older sister and I dressed up as Hogwarts students for Halloween. After taking multiple quizzes to see which house we each got the most, we determined that my sister was a Gryffindor and I was a Ravenclaw. My grandmother proceeded to knit us both house scarves. I still have mine, and it’s quite special to me. For years I displayed it proudly over my bedroom door, a testament to both my identity as Ravenclaw and my identity as my beloved Grandmother’s granddaughter.

A few years later, I began investigating my Hogwarts house further. I wasn’t satisfied with the short and simple quizzes that had determined my house previously. I found a pretty long quiz to take, and this one was based off of psychological personality tests, I believe. This quiz determined that I was a member of Hufflepuff house. This was an initial surprise and disappointment, but after some soul-searching, I decided that I did in fact identify with Hufflepuff. The main Hufflepuff traits are honesty, loyalty, and hard-work. These are all things I aspire to embody. Therefore, I began celebrating my membership of the least-appreciated Hogwarts house with pride. I happily considered myself a Hufflepuff for several years.

Then came along J.K. Rowling’s announcement of Pottermore and a quiz that she herself created to determine house. This was exciting for me. Although I was quite sure of my house, I knew that this would be the final and ultimate confirmation. When the time came for Pottermore to be released, I took the quiz … and I got the result of Ravenclaw. I was shocked and torn. Seriously. I was (and honestly still am) so invested in the world of Harry Potter that this emotionally tore me. To be clear I didn’t cry or anything. I wasn’t completely devastated. But it did call to mind a semi-serious questioning of my identity. I went back and forth. Would I embrace Ravenclaw? Would I decide J.K. Rowling’s judgement to be invalid? Would I declare myself a hybrid of the houses, a Ravenpuff or a Huffleclaw? This was something I seriously considered. After a few days of thought on the matter, I decided to embrace my new house while still maintaining a connection to Hufflepuff and its values. That is where I am even to this day, although I did have a brief crisis when Pottermore was revamped and I had to make a new account. I got Gryffindor on that test. I freaked out and I made another new account, which thankfully sorted me back into Ravenclaw. My boyfriend at the time couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal to me. “It’s just a book and a fictional world,” he said to me, which sort of made me mad, even though I know deep down that this is the truth. Harry Potter and the world surrounding it means so much to me. I wonder why this is? How does something that isn’t even real inspire such enthusiasm and devotion? Sure it’s a great story, but why have I and a large number of other fans placed so much stake in the personality categories it introduces to us?

I believe it has to do with our search for identity. Today’s world is tumultuous and largely secular. Religious ways of defining ourselves have taken the back burner in our American culture. I think that without Jesus being at the forefront of our minds and identities, we struggle to find other ways to express ourselves. Everyone wants to belong somewhere, and being a member of a certain Hogwarts house can provide that kind of sense of belonging. When someone tells me they are a Ravenclaw, I grin and say “Me too!” It forms a connection between us that may not have otherwise formed. I do not think there is anything wrong with connecting and putting ourselves in these fictional categories, but I do think that it is important not to let it consume us. We shouldn’t become so obsessed with the fictional worlds of fandom that we forget about what really matters. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus ought to be at the forefront of my mind. As a human, he often is not at the forefront. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I let other things, such as my intense fangirling regarding the world of fiction, take priority. I have to work every day to try to reorient myself to put God first. Some days I try harder than others. Among all the distractions, Jesus is the truest and most important part of existence. Those other aspects of life are fun and certainly meaningful, but truly they are nothing compared to Christ.

Harry Potter may have fictionally gave his life and came back to save the wizarding community, but Jesus ACTUALLY gave his life to save the whole wide world. If anything, Harry Potter’s fictional act of selfless love points us towards the truth of Christ’s real selfless love. First and foremost, I must place my identity in Christ, not the other things. I must strive to remember every day that before anything, before I am a Ravenclaw, a writer, a Whovian, a Zeta, a fangirl, even before I am a member of my family … I am a child of God.